Foxtails and Fairytales: Facades and Fables of the Phantom Prince

[Arc 2] Ch. 10 Zorlo's Comedies

[Brought to you by the lovely Patreon Pirate Sheeta15 who became the new Lady of the Sea]

*

Minerva

The emotions were building up inside me and I didn't know what to do but when I tried to leave he caught my had and I only had enough energy to hide my face behind my hair.

"I'm not done talking to you." He said earnestly.

"I don't know." I said, completely ashamed of my inability to remember my wrongs enough to fix them. I hid behind the veil of my hair. The slap to the face only punctuated my past and my faults. I had so much to atone for. I was so arrogant. How would I react if it was Sebas who ran from me, or worse, what if he was the one who slapped me? I probably deserved all of it. I was painfully reminded of the event where he took the servants beatings. Watching Cedric hit him still haunted me to this day.

There is no way I can just walk right up to Sebas and expect forgiveness. Alvin the woodsman may have won Shar'lita's affection, but at what point did he fall in love with her? I don't even remember anymore, was it simply a marriage of obligation after all? Did he ever have feelings for her? Maybe forgiveness really is the best I can hope for?

"Please release me." I asked him.

"I want you to leave those two alone." He said calmly.

"...I can't do that." I sniffled as my emotions churned inside me.

He sighed. "Do whatever you have to, I guess. I'm not your mother." He let go of me and I walked inside. Gone was the comforting smell of books and I was back in the Sebas's empty room discovering I was the devil of the fairytale. The sickening sound of crunching wood and snapping guitar echoed as I hear his quite and ultimate declaration at me. 'Devil.'

The gentle warmth of the hand rail did nothing to ease my troubled heart as the miraculously noiseless steps only echoed how alone I was. What might it be like to come to school with friends? What was it like to have friends? I had done my best to make restitutions in Sudaven but there were just some bridges that I couldn't repair. The memories of my misdeeds haunt me but none so much as his words...

*

Sebas was before me, and I watched as he held the dagger above his chest and defended the life of a stranger who had nearly beaten him to death. "Princess," he spoke to me, "remember this moment, sear it into your memory for I was the man that fell on his sword before being bound to you, as you are." Then blood... so much blood.

*

I found myself in front of the pile of books the scared boy left behind. I picked up My'kel's Triumph. It was an old tome and I counted the pages until the section with Alvin and Shar'lita. The story was a classic about a hero boy named My'kel from humble beginnings he uses his wit and hard work to overcome several trials to gain the ability to use a holy sword to fight a devil and save the princess of his dreams. Along the way he makes many allies, the first is a woodsman named Alvin.

One of their trials was to retrieve a certain magic shield from a dragon's keep in the middle of a large forest. They trapped the dragon and snuck in, but when sneaking out, a lovely woman stopped them. It turned out to be the dragon in human form. After hearing their plight from the woodsman Alvin, she named a curious price for her aid.

She desired a companion, namely the woodsman since she fell in love with Alvin's loyalty to his friend My'kel. After that she joined their adventure after having several children so that the dragon race would live on if she perished in battle. She and Alvin returned after the war to raise their children who rose to great prominence and became the pillars of dragon civilization.